Qatar airways to loan laptops to passengers to overcome the laptop ban

If it is allowed to bring USB keys, one can boot his own personalized operating system from it.

Of course Airstrip One will follow the national policy of Oceania

> this is clearly motivated by economical considerations more than security.

Can you elaborate?

Has any reasoning been made public? All I've seen is speculation.

> How can we mess up Middle Eastern airlines and their business prospects yet help our airlines? Security.

This ban applies to all air travel from the selected originating countries, regardless of airline. (EDIT: Technically this is true, but functionally it is the M.E. carriers that are most affected)

> Not to mention if they are loaning out laptops, who is to trust those laptops are not being spied upon?

Fair point. I wouldn’t be comfortable using a loaner for any sensitive work

> Why would any of these airlines agree to a ban without a quid pro quo for the other airlines as well?

They don’t have to agree. They either implement the ban or are denied landing I’m sure.

They agree because they want to keep flying to the US, no?

The regulation is about bombs, not batteries. There has been a report that would-be bombers are using stolen (?) airport screening equipment to develop undetectable bombs.

I’m not sure how effective this ban can be, but I assume there’s recent intelligence that prompted it.

The irony here is that CASA (Australia's aviation regulatory body) bans laptops and iPads for being checked into luggage because of the batteries.

Not that these conflicting requirements should affect anyone though - Australia flies directly to the US (or via Asia or NZ), and to the UK it usually flies through Doha, Dubai (which is not impacted by the UK ban).

> The IATA should put their foot down here.

Regulations and procedures for dangerous items are primarily codified by ICAO, a UN agency.

IATA have their own superset but that only applies to members of that organisation, as opposed to the ICAO regs which are binding on air carriers based in UN nations.

Probably not for you (assuming your reading HN means that your work mainly involves code access and key metrics, plus your expressed doubt). To some people, it can be enough:

- reading the news on a website who might not have a printed magazine but whose URL you can remember;

- personal social media account without sensitive information; chat applications;

- I would not recommend email, but I’m assuming that will be a large share of the use.

Interestingly, WhatsApp has a decent security and usability case for such a situation: your phone is secure and you use that to authenticate temporarily; the full keyboard is more convenient for communications.

But guaranteeing that someone whose name is on the flight manifest will have the need to, and only access to a pool of a handful of laptops means that targetted attack could become so much easier.

I rather sleep on my flight than be woken up 30 minutes before arriving to Halifax.

It does. The ban is based on device size.

Completely agree. Also "would you like to login to your social/email accounts while on using this public, potentially spyware, keylogger infested machine of ours?"

I think its more dangerous. How often are they yelling at people that gate check to not have any batteries in their luggage? So is it okay now? Are they putting all cargo in sealed metal containers to keep any fires from spreading?

This isn't a ban by Qatar Airways. They are highly opposed to the ban. And on the water ban enforced at the airport (and sometimes the gate), Qatar Airways doesn't charge for beverages (including alcohol), they'll happily give you litres of bottled water for free (although for some reason odd reason they cut the label off when you ask for a 2l bottle - and no its not tank stored potable water - i get thirsty during long flights - tis just easier this way).

Presumably you can use a very small bomb more effectively if it is in your direct control. Perhaps by detonating it while holding it against the side of the plane while at cruising altitude.